I bought the 4 element in 2003 and reviewed it at 6 months and two years later. Even though it has one more element the two antennas are very much the same.
You can look at almost 100 reviews of the three element at:
http://www.eham.net/reviews/detail/1833
4 Element Review
This is the two year plus product review of the SteppIR four element antenna. The antenna I own was the first unit built (S/N 001) and I put it up in September 2003. The performance has been flawless. My previous antenna was a TH-7DX. One of the first things I noticed was how quiet the SteppIR antenna was. The elements are not electrically connected to the boom and as a result, “P” static noise is greatly reduced.
During the last 27 months the antenna has been through dozens of ice storms, hundreds of hail storms and everyday UV radiation at the 7000 foot level here in Colorado. The fiberglass elements are still smooth and shinny and show no signs of derogation from UV radiation. Antenna strength is one of the best aspects in this design. Last year a tornado came through the ranch and the antenna did fine in the 100 MPH winds and I might add faring much better than my roof.
The antenna has been struck by lightning three times and with no damage other than a little scorching on the boom. I use MOV's at the base of the tower for the control and rotor lines and PolyPhasers for the RF cables. These are connected to a deep ground system with a measured impedance of .4 ohms. My SteppIR is mounted atop a 105 foot guyed tower and all the guy stanchions are grounded.
As you might guess, having the first antenna in the area, other hams had me installing their SteppIR's. To date I have installed 4-four elements and 2-three elements as well as two of the BIG SteppIR beam antennas that cover 40-6 meters. The kits were always complete with no missing hardware. Each one built, performed the same and to specifications. It takes about 5 hours for the four element assembly and three hours for the three element antenna. The Monster SteppIR beam takes about 14 hours to build and you need a large space for the task. Putting up the antenna is best done with a crane. You can put up the 20 meter 3 and 4 element antenna with a Jin pole.
One installation had a Crushcraft 40 meter two element beam eight feet above the 20-6 meter antenna. There was some interaction between the two and I had to reconfigure via the controller the element lengths. No problem and the antenna performed as expected.
The 20 meter 4 element antenna is made from 6061-T6 aircraft aluminum with a massive 12 by 12 by ½ mast plate. Because the antenna has most of its weight in the boom it turns about 10 degrees a second with only a Yaesu 800 series rotor. A PolyStrand truss is used to support the massive 32 foot boom. My antenna is 250 feet from the shack and the 28 volt power supply runs the stepper motors just fine. Should you have a longer run to you antennas they have a higher voltage 33 volt power supply to make up for IR losses.
At first I though the ability to change the antenna direction, electrically 180 degrees, was a neat feature but not that necessary. I was wrong. In Colorado I use 180 degree and the Bi-Directional features all the time saving much wear and tear on my rotor.
To date I have worked 234 countries on 20, about 120 countries on 10 and I might add at the bottom of the sun spot cycle. Working DX with this antenna is like hunting with a 7mm magnum. Point, shoot, bag and tag. Many times I have called CQ on what would be described as a dead band only to have DX come out of the wood work. The most heard comment is about raw signal strength. The antenna is very efficient with the side lobes down 35 dB and the beam width about 60 degrees at the 3 dB points. Even a marginal HF transceiver will be much relieved having this ahead of the front end. I run 7/8 Heliax from the station to the tower top to keep losses on 6 meters at a minimum. Needles to say at HF frequencies the losses are minimal.
Front-to-back is about 25 dB for 20-15 meters and about 17 dB for 12 and 10 meters. I have the extra elements for 6 meters giving me about 13 dBi of gain with six elements. VSWR is almost zero on all bands. If I see some, just a touch of the frequency button will eliminate the reflected power. At first I hooked the controller to automatically track the transceiver but the bandwidth of the antenna is very broad and I no longer use that feature.
I had looked at this antenna design for several years before I bought the antenna. Being able to adjust the element length seems to solve the age old problem of VSWR bandwidth vs. gain vs. front-to-back performance. I wanted to give Fluid Motion, some time to work out the bugs and mechanicals. I need not have worried. In the last two years I have talked with owners of the first units as well as new owners and they have all had nothing but praise for the factory support, design, operation and the professional manor of the crew at Fluid Motion. Their support has always been top drawer and they did not credit my credit card until after the antenna had shipped. Now for an antenna manufacture that's refreshing.
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